New anti-corruption purge in the Chinese Communist Party

Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the closing of the “Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference” in Beijing on March 10, 2021. MARK SCHIEFELBEIN / AP Less than a month from the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption fight is intensifying. On Thursday, September 22, the Changchun court (Jilin province) sentenced to death, but with a two-year reprieve, Fu Zhenghua, who was Minister of Justice from 2018 to 2020, Deputy Minister of Public Security (from 2013 to 2018) and Beijing police chief from 2010 to 2013. In principle, after two years, his sentence should be commuted to life imprisonment. Fu Zhenghua is accused of receiving bribes worth seventeen million euros. An investigation had been launched against him in October 2021. He had been expelled from the CCP in April and his trial was held at the end of July. Fu Zhenghua has long been considered a central element of the fight against corruption launched by Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2012. He notably played a key role in the fall, in 2014, of Zhou Yongkang, the former Minister of Public Security (2002-2007) and above all a member from 2007 to 2012 of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, these seven men at the heart of power. Accused of having received more than ten billion euros in bribes, Zhou Yongkang was sentenced in 2015 to life imprisonment. He was also considered a close friend of Bo Xilai, a rival of Xi Jinping before 2012. Multiplication of indictments The conviction of Fu Zhenghua comes twenty-four hours after that of three other senior police officials, convicted both of corruption but also for having been members of a “political clique”, in other words for having opposed Xi Jinping. Accused of having accepted more than ten million euros in bribes, Gong Daoan, vice-mayor of Shanghai (2018-2020) and chief of its police (2017-2020), was sentenced to prison at life. Former Chongqing police chief (2017-2020), Deng Huiling, accused of having embezzled six million euros, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Finally, Liu Xinyun, former police chief of Shanxi (from 2018 to 2021), accused of having received 1.8 million euros, was sentenced to fourteen years in prison. Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers In China, a wave of anti-corruption in the strategic sector of electronic chips These three police officials are also accused of being close to Sun Lijun, a former deputy minister of public security (from March 2018 to March 2020) accused of having received nearly one hundred million euros in bribes and other undue advantages, but also, according to the Party’s central disciplinary inspection commission, of “having great political ambitions of having “led a decadent life” and of having “never had any convictions or ideals”. His trial was held in early July, but the judgment has not yet been made public. You have 36.2% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.



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